


Catch You Alone

by LaMaldita



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 04:50:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18985630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaMaldita/pseuds/LaMaldita
Summary: At first Agent Stern had found it easier to compartmentalize, to view Barclay as merely another source of potential information who just happened to be a broad-chested tree of a man with pretty brown eyes and bone structure that was completely unfair. But over the months, over the course of their myriad small conversations, it had become harder to see Barclay as a mark and much easier to see him as a friend. More recently, he had caught himself hoping for more than friendship. And that was a bit of a problem.





	Catch You Alone

****

Autumn comes blazing like a comet into the Monongahela National Forest. The sloping mountains are threaded with the reds and yellows of deciduous trees that share the space with the famous pines. The open bends of Pocahontas County’s winding country roads are touched by the warm, filtered light of a late-stretching summer.

It’s still warm enough to leave the windows open most of the day, and the smell of pine needles and forest earth drifts into the lobby of the Amnesty Lodge. Seated at one of the round formica tables, Agent Stern flips idly through the latest issue of the Lamplighter. It’s late afternoon, and no one appears to be around. He had seen Dani and the young lady with the punk rock hair--Annie? Audrey?--leave with baskets in hand, ostensibly to go collect some of those weird wild onions for dinner. He briefly wondered where they had left the rabbit, finally having managed to coax it a few times from its favourite spot under a sofa after almost two months living here. He couldn’t claim the same success with the Lodge’s other inhabitants. His pen digs at the page a little too hard as he fills out the weekly Cryptid Crossword. Two months of mistrust, misdirection, and dead ends. The wall of his room was now a stereotype; a mad collage of notes and clippings and he still felt no closer to the truth than when he first arrived. The whole Quiet Zone thing didn’t help his feelings of isolation either.

The pen hits the table with a dull clatter as he stands, abandoning the crossword. Dust motes catch the light as he crosses the lobby, swirling wildly as his movement disturbs them. As he passes the piano, Stern pauses. So seldom had the instrument’s bench been unoccupied by Moira while he’d been here.  _ I wonder if I could... _

He sits hesitantly, glancing about again and quickly scolding himself for his apprehension. What was he afraid of? Some unspoken piano code? The keys are smooth and vaguely warm beneath his fingers as he hits Middle C and a clear note rings through the empty lobby. It holds in the air a long time, fading like a ripple. A chickadee calls outside. 

He plays a couple bars of the chorus to Piano Man, shifts to Für Elise for a few seconds, then settles finally on some Alicia Keys. His hands ache a little from lack of practice and he misses a few notes, corrects them, gives himself that leisure of stopping and restarting that pianists do when they are unwatched. The black top of the piano catches a glare as the sun sinks a little lower in the sky and he feels his face illuminated.

Stern has the feeling that Moira wouldn’t have denied him the use of the piano had he asked, but she wouldn’t have liked it either. The only one who had shown any sort of effort in making him feel welcome was the cook, Barclay. The man was warm, patient, and made both the strangest and loveliest teas. 

He reaches the chorus and allows himself a low hum, more just resonating his chest than trying to match the tune. The fact that Barclay was extremely nice to look at may have influenced his opinion. At first Stern had found it easier to compartmentalize, to view the man as merely another source of potential information who just happened to be a broad-chested tree of a man with pretty brown eyes and bone structure that was completely unfair. But over the months, over the course of their myriad small conversations, it had become harder to see Barclay as a mark and much easier to see him as a sort of friend. More recently he had caught himself wishing for more than friendship—and that was a bit of a problem. 

The song finishes and Stern moves his hands to begin again.  _ No mistakes this time. _ He can almost hear the smoker’s rasp of his piano teacher over the opening bars. Going good so far—-and he stumbles over the keys and abruptly stops as he notices a face in the service window. 

Barclay winces apologetically. “Sorry, didn’t mean to spook you.” 

Stern hadn’t even heard him in the kitchen. For his size, the man was alarmingly quiet at times. He and offers a professional smile back. “Quite all right,” he says, taking his fingers off the keys and standing. 

“Oh, don’t stop on my account! I um, didn’t know you played.” 

Stern’s fingers remain hovering just over the keys. “Yes, since I was ten.” 

Barclay regards him with those large, observant brown eyes and rests his chin on his hand for a second, then jerks upright as he seems to realize something. “Sorry, I shouldn’t stare, that’s weird. I won’t bug you, if you want to keep playing.” 

Stern chuckles a little. Barclay was always so aware of other’s feelings. “I should really get some work done,” he says, closing the lid. He catches a flash of something like disappointment cross the other man’s face as he straightens up.

“You should play more often,” Barclay says, just before he disappears back into the kitchen. “Moira tends to stick hard to the classics—it’s, um, nice to have a change.” 

And he’s damned if the glimpse that Stern catches of Barclay’s crooked, sincere smile doesn’t set a bird loose in his chest.  


**Author's Note:**

> This will probably go up in rating eventually. Also, it really helps my writing if you tell me what worked or didn't work! What was your favourite line or paragraph? Much appreciated! 
> 
> P.S. I imagined Stern was playing "Fallin'" because it's a banger.
> 
> P.P.S. In light of episode 28's events I moved the timing of this to the autumn, not too long after Agent Stern arrived in Kepler.


End file.
